Sunny Knight: a Pony's Tale

by TheothersideofSunny968

First step to Forgiveness

The city of Trotum; once it was a beautiful and plentiful place. The buildings shined and glimmered in the light of the sun. The streets were clear and well kept. It was a place where small businesses were prospered,a pony could make a comfortable living, and everypony could trust one another. That was many years ago, when Buck Billionbits was a young Foal, and his father ran the largest and most powerful company in the city, Billionbits Enterprises. The company payed for most of the public's projects. Road and building repairs, waste management, grounds keeping of the trees and parks around the city, even the police force and hospitals received large donations from the Billionbits family. But when Buck's father and mother did not return from an exposition at sea, the rights of the company went to the board members, who thought such spending was too costly for the company and payed no profit. In a short year, what had been once a wonderful city, crumbled and turned dark.

The city became dirty and grimy, ponies lost their shops, forcing more and more to turn to a life of crime or become homeless. The police were unable to keep up with all the crime that seemed to fuel the dark city. They needed a hero.

They needed somepony who would fight to keep the city safe. Buck, now of age, tried to take back the company that was his birthright, but ultimately was unable to. Still, he could not stand by and watch as his beloved home, the city his father and mother believed in, to remain a crime ridden trash can. Dawning a black cloak, mask, and hat, as well as arming himself with a number of gadgets, Buck Billionbits became the protector of Trotum. The dark avenger. The Dark Detective...

Spike was sure he didn't fall, but the shock his body felt argued otherwise. His head felt like he had sat through another one of Pinkie's Drum solo's. As the little purple dragon got to his feet, he stumbled around a bit before getting a good look at his surroundings. "Woah, guess I'm not in Ponyville anymore..."

Gathering that he was on top of some sort of building, Spike wobbled over to the edge to get a better look at his surroundings. The little purple dragon was shocked by what he saw! He rubbed his eyes once, thinking he was seeing things, maybe even just waking up from a dream, but no, it was all real!

"Holy Haberdashery! I'm in Trotum!" Spike exclaimed as his eyes darted all over the city below. Most ponies appeared to be glaring at one another, keeping to themselves as they quickly made their way between the buildings and down the sidewalks to get to wherever their busy city lives took them.

"Where th' hay is Trotum?" Sunny's voice groggled behind Spike, as he himself awoke from a possible fall. As the yellow unicorn shook his head clear and got to his hooves, he took a second look at Spike and grew slightly confused. "Ugh, Spike? Why are ya wearin' that get up for?"

Forcing himself to take his eyes off the amazing city from one of his favorite comic books, Spike turned to look at the unicorn standing behind him. The purple dragon was shocked at 'who' he actually thought he saw standing tall and proud before him in his signature black coat and matching mask and hat. It wasn't until Spike took a second glance did he realize that the pony standing before him wasn't actually the 'Dark Detective', but rather the last pony in Equestria he ever wanted to end up in another comic book with. "Great. It's you, Sunny."

"Ugh, well yeah, but what's with yer get up?" The masked unicorn asked, motioning to Spike with a gloved hoof. At that moment, Sunny realized he too was wearing some sort of an outfit. "What in Granny's green girdle?!"

Looking around him, Sunny spotted a metal air vent that's reflective surface would act as a mirror. Running over to it, Sunny looked himself up and down, even opening the coat he was wearing to reveal many many pockets, all lines with various small gadgets and doodads. "What happened?! Why are we dressed like this?"

"We're in a comic book" Spike began to explain, a know-it-all attitude thick in his tone as he walked over to where Sunny had been looking over himself. "I've done this before. Kinda sucks that I'm stuck as Hum Drum, again. But it looks like 'you' are the Dark Detective."

Pausing to think for a moment, something reminded Sunny of a chapter he read about in 'the elements of harmony; a reference guide'. Then a light flipped on in his head. "This is just like th' time you and th' girls got sucked into th' Power Pony's comic, right?"

"I guess so" Spike said, thinking back to that awesome adventure. Then a sharp scowl popped into his face. "That means one of the comics you got me was from the Magic comics shop! They suck ponies into their pages until try beat the bad guys! It's your fault we're here!"

Just as a heated argument was about to break out between the city's two greatest heroes, an explosion quickly followed by the sound of an alarm and the screams of ponies interrupted their possible fight.

"We'll settle this later" Sunny said as he ran over to the ledge of the building. Immediately, the Dark Detective caught sight of the cause of the ruckus.

Joining him, Hum Drum gripped into the ledge, his eyes quickly zoning in on a near by bank that was now on fire! The front doors had been blown out and some shady looking goons in black outfits were making their get away in the heat of the commotion.

"We have to stop them!" The Dark Detective declared, his eyes narrowing on the bad guys. "But how do we get down there?"

"In the top pocket on the left side of your coat should be your grappling hook" Hum Drum instructed the hero. "If you fire it just ahead and above where those guys are, we could catch up to them and stop them!"

"Great idea, Spi-ugh, I mean, Hum Drum" The masked hero corrected himself. "Guess we better use those names while we're here, right?"

"Yeah. Sure. Whatever" Spike said, annoyed that he had to be called by the name of the lamest sidekick in any comic book he's ever read. Hopping onto the Dark Detective's back, the sidekick added "I just want you to know, I still haven't forgiven you. For anything."

"Noted" the masked hero said as he pushed all thoughts of redemption out of his mind and started running to the edge of the building.

When the Dark Detective reached the edge of the roof, he took as wide of a leap as he could, before pulling out his grappling hook and fire if it at the direction Spike suggested. It would have been great if the hook had actually caught onto where it was supposed to. And in comics, that happened most of the time. However, this time was different. As the hook neared the ledge of another building where the Dark Detective planned for it to go, the hook instead hit the ledge and bounced, and failed to grip anything.

"Ugh oh..." the masked hero said as he and his sidekick continued to fall faster and faster to the ground!

"Ahhhh! Grab something else!" Hum Drum said in a panic.

"What else does this guy have?!" The Dark Detective asked as he began rummaging through the various pockets of the large black coat. Items he had no idea about began to fall out of their respective pockets, none of which the masked stallion knew what they were.

"Just grab something, anything!" Hum Drum snapped as the ground below was approaching them and fast!

Grabbing a small black box from another pocket, the Dark Detective pressed a button on the side, activating what he hoped was something that could help them fly. Unfortunately for them, it was the Dark raft, which was just a water raft painted black. But fortunately
For them, that gave Spike an idea! Thinking quickly, Spike, dressed as Hum Drum, grabbed the grappling hook, reeled it back in, and repositioned him and Sunny, dressed as the Dark Detective, into the raft. When the raft was just a few yards from the ground, it hit a flag pole. The pole bent, but didn't break. Instead, it flung the dark raft along with the two heroes through the air! As the two heroes hung on for dear life, Spike grabbed hold of Sunny and fired the grappling hook once more, this time when the hook was fired, it grabbed hold of it's target.

Passing the grappling hook to the unicorn dressed in all black, Spike then hopped onto the Dark Detective's back and held on tight. Having a second chance, Sunny wasn't going to mess it up this time. He smacked the button on the grappling hook's side that caused the gadget to begin retracting, and began pulling him back in the direction of the escaping back robbers!

As the two heroes drew closer and closer to the escaping back robbers, the Dark Detective felt himself losing his grip on the device retracting the grappling hook, and tried to readjust his hooves so as. It to lose his grip. Only, when he did so, his hoof accidentally hit the release button, and Trotum's two heroes were then hurled and landed onto the bank robbers, knocking most of them out cold.

When the Dark Detective got up and brushed some of the dirt off of himself, the last conscious robber quickly regained his composure and jumped to the Dark Detective! The masked hero wasn't even aware of the danger, but was aware his hat had fallen from his head. As he bent down to pick it up, the robber who was jumping at the Dark Detective and was in mid air, ended up missing his target and landed face first into a fire hydrant! And without any idea he as done it, the Dark Detective defeated the aggressive bank robber without raising a single hoof.

"Ah hate ta see anythin' happen ta ah good hat" The Dark Detective said as he brushed the dirt off the hat before placing it back on top of his head.

"Oh yeah, hate for anything to happen to a hat that doesn't belong to you!" Hum Drum snapped. The sidekick, unfortunately, was stuck underneath the pile of knocked out bank robbers. "Now can you get me up?"

"Sure thing" the masked hero said as he started to shove the bad guys off his aid.

Not two moments later did a large group of police ponies arrive at the scene, ready with handcuffs and police carts to take the bad guys to jail. Distracted by not only the police who showed up to collect and detain the robbers but a crowd that had begun to form, the Dark Detective forgot about freeing his sidekick and gawked at the crowd around him. Ponies from off the street who had seen everything unravel had gathered and were cheering, actually cheering, for the Dark Detective! Shouting his name, yelling thanks of all kinds, and once more, cheering!

Sunny stood in awe, taking in all the words of thanks and applause from the ponies of Trotum, and started to actually smile. In the past, Sunny had received such treatment when he returned from a victorious battle, when he fought off giant monsters who threatened the Empire, or other such tasks. Never before had it ever meant so much to him though. Maybe because, before, it was all expected of him to protect them and he didn't feel 'he' was actually receiving the applause. Sunny felt as though the applause was more for the fact that the conflict had been resolved. And so the prince would just take it and move to the next task. But this, this was actual applause for 'him'! For something 'he' got done! Kinda.

"Thanks for the help" Spike snapped as a police pony pulled a bank robber off the small mask and cape wearing dragon.

"Sp-ugh, Hum Drum, do ya hear that?" The Dark Detective asked as the crowd cheered.

Pausing for a moment to listen to the crowd, the scowl Spike wore earlier returned as e grew even more annoyed. "Yeah, I do. They're cheering for you, Mr. Hero."

"You bet they are!" A dark brown stallion approached the Dark Detective and Hum Drum. He had a thick, short, white mane, a small mustache to match, and a pair of beady little eyes that rested behind a thick pair of square glasses. "Great job today, both of you."

"It would have gone better if 'somepony' didn't mess up with his grappling hook" Spike said under his breath.

"Thank ya, ugh..." Sunny started to say to the elderly stallion, ignoring Spike's snide comment, but honestly had no idea who the stallion was.

"It's me, Dark" the stallion said, appearing a little confused that the city's greatest hero didn't recognize him. "Oh! I get it. I shaved off my goatee and trimmed my mustache. Now you hardly recognize your old pal on the police force. The commissioner. Right?"

"Ugh, right! That's it!" The masked hero tried to recover. "Ya look so much younger now."

"Weeeeell thank you" the elderly stallion smiled as he stroked his trimmed facial hair. "I'd love to stand around and chat, but I'm afraid we got more problems. Here..."

The police commissioner handed a file over to the Dark Detective.

"We've had another lab hit last night while you two took out that villain, Rumble Weed" the commissioner continued to explain. "This time not only was the lab hit, but the museum as well! Our boys still can't figure it out. But if anypony can crack the case, it's you, Dark Detective."

Feeling extremely confident, Sunny smiled and took the file in hoof, saluting the police commissioner. "Ah'll have this bad guy bagged and ready for ya in no time, commissioner. Ya'll can count on me!"

"Yeah, if you ever figure out how to use your equipment..." Spike said as he dusted off his cape.

"Hop on, Hum Drum" Sunny said in the most heroic tone he could muster, wanting to put on a dramatic exit for the crowd. "There's evil afoot. It's up ta us ta round it up and hog tie it!"

"Great, the sooner we get this done the better..." Spike said as he hopped onto Sunny's back, holding on with all his might.

As he took aim, Sunny made sure to keep his hooves away from the quick release as he gripped the grappling hook tightly and fired it into the sky. Once it hooked onto the ledge of a building, Sunny gave the hook a quick tug, activating the automatic reel system of the gadget. Kicking off the ground, both the Dark Detective and his sidekick were shot into the air! The crowd once again cheering and applauding for their heroes.

"We should probably head to the Dark Detective's secret hide out" Spike suggested. "There we could-"

The little purple dragon was interrupted as the two heroes turned slightly in mid air and collided with a balcony. Well, mainly it was Spike who collided with the balcony, having taken most of the blow by accident.

"Sorry partner, Ah'm still gettin' used ta this darn thing" Sunny admitted and tried to apologize to Spike who was rubbing his back to relieve some of the pain.

"Ugh! Pay attention!" The masked sidekick snapped. "Head towards the peer, there we-"

But before Spike could explain further, they hit another flag pole, this time Sunny saw the threat and ducked, but forgot to warn Spike to do the same. The poor baby dragon didn't even see the pole coming until it was too late! After smacking his head on the pole, Spike started to rub his nose, which had grown to three times its normal size and turned a bright shade of red.

"I'm really sorry, S-ugh, Hum Drum" the Dark Detective started to say. "Ah ain't used ta carryin' anypony on my back, neither !"

"Just go that way!" Spike had had enough and focused more on his own safety then instructing the yellow unicorn. 'Think I'd be safer with the villains in their lair as bait then with this guy...'

At the edge of the City, over looking a cliff side was the Billionbits manner. And beneath it, in deep dark caves that the duo were able to access through an underwater passageway, was the legendary Dark Cave! The place where the Dark Detective not only stored his gadgets, made them, repaired them, but also looked over and studied criminal activity. It was also a place where he kept items from his previous encounters with various villains. He had a giant animatronic hydra from when the Toy Creator tried to take over the city with giant animatronic creatures. He had a giant bit hanging from the ceiling, a dummy that was 'supposedly' the mastermind behind a crime spree involving a gang and a ventriloquist, as well several other outfits used for specific environments and situations. Sunny was so amazed my everything that e failed to notice a smoothly dressed elderly stallion off in the corner.

"Welcome back, master Dark, master Hum" the stallion said with an unreadable muzzle. He was rather thin and tall, his coat was a light cream color, his mane was thin and grey. And just like the police commissioner, he too had a mustache. But his was rather thin. His eyes too were tiny black pebbles at the top of his head. "Shall I prepare your normal returning beverages?"

"Ugh, sure?" Sunny said as he scratched under his hat. As the butler disappeared, Sunny leaned in and whispered into Spike's ear "who was that?"

"Him? That was just Penny Worth, Dark Detective and Hum Drum's butler. Now come on, we got work to do" Spike said as he took his mask off, allowing his face a chance to breath.

Feeling a little hot himself, Sunny also removed his mask and hat. He then was offered a large cup of hot chocolate by Penny who reappeared out of nowhere, shocking Sunny so much he almost spilled the cup! Regaining his composure, Sunny took the cup, smiled and thanked Penny, then proceeded to where Spike was to see what the little dragon was working on. Standing at a large, square table, Spike had taken the file the commissioner had given the Dark Detective, opened it, and spread the contents all over the table.

"Ok, I think I know who's behind this..." Spike said mostly to himself, trying to ignore Sunny's presence entirely.

"Really? That fast?" Sunny tried to sound impressed to complement the young dragon.

"Wasn't that hard" Spike snapped before turning to Penny Worth. "Would you mind bringing me every news paper from the last month?"

"Of course, sir" the butler replied, leaving a slightly smaller cup of hot chocolate for Spike before vanishing again.

Sunny took a sip as he looked over Spike's shoulder to try and piece things together as well. He didn't know much about the new Dark Detective comics, and it had been a while since he even picked up a comic himself, but he still retained what Spike had told him a little while ago and wanted to try and stay on the same page as his dragon companion.

Noticing this, Spike stepped aside, rolled his eyes, and crossed his arms across his chest. After a long and annoying moment of waiting for Sunny to give up, Spike just sighed heavily and asked. "Any idea who could have done this?"

Looking at the pictures, Sunny could see similarities in the robberies. All the pictures taken of the crime scenes had large holes surrounded by chunks of ice, with half of the building still frozen. Some of the notes stated that only one or two items were taken, and nopony noticed anypony leaving the scene of the crime.

"Ugh.... Dr.Chillzone?" Sunny guessed sheepishly.

"Dr.Chillzone?" Spike raised a brow, a frown still etched in on his face. "He hasn't been in the Dark Detective comics since issue 78, when the Dark Detective and Hum Drum reunited him with his long lost daughter and got him to turn over a new leaf."

"Maybe it's his daughter and him workin' together?" Sunny suggested, still trying to do his best to keep up with Spike.

Spike smacked his face with his dominant claw in frustration before shooting Sunny a rather annoyed look. "Ok, even if this 'is' a comic book, and stuff like that happens to bring back old time favorites, what was the title of the comic?"

That's when a lightbulb clicked on in Sunny's head, causing him to jerk a little, spilling some of his hot chocolate onto Spike. "Ah ha! It's Frost Bite!.... but who's Frost-"

"Hot! Hot! Hot!" Spike was hastily trying to cool his scales that were now doused in boiling hot chocolate. After a few moments Spike's scales began to cool and he narrowed his eyes on Sunny. "Yeah. Bingo. You pieced it together. It wasn't that hard. Anypony could have figured it out."

At that time, Penny returned with the papers Spike had asked him to acquire. Spike then began looking through them, and as he found what he was looking for, the little dragon folded the paper open to the designated page and put it aside. Sunny watched, wishing he could help, but thought it best to just stay out of Spike's way for the time being. The purple dragon knew more about comic books then he did.

Wandering around a little, Sunny found himself looking at all the various gadgets that the Dark Detective had made and used on a regular basis. Some of which were clearly labeled, but others were harder to figure out. Ones in canisters had been labeled 'anti-hair spray', 'fire in a can', 'emergency breath freshener' and oddly enough 'shark repellent'. Putting the shark repellent aside, Sunny moved on to the gadgets that didn't have labels and started fiddling with them. They all were odd shapes with parts that either popped open or twisted to become something else. Sunny then looked back at Spike. The little dragon was putting his mask back on, appeared for to prepare for an encounter with this 'Frost Bite'.

"So... who's this 'Frost Bite' again?" Sunny asked, his voice very faint and monotone so as not to antagonize the little dragon.

"She used to be called Sunday Sprinkles" Spike started to say as he grabbed a few gadgets, not even bothering to look Sunny in the eye. "She was a chemist working on a project to flash freeze food so it wouldn't be effected by freezer burn. Supposedly she came up with a chemical that could keep food frozen for years without any damage done to it. But an accident in the lab splashed the chemical all over her and she turned into a super powered pony who could freeze the air around her or anything she touched. Drawback to her powers; she has to be kept in freezing temperatures otherwise she gets really sick. So she made a giant, metal suit to keep her cool. She's strong and dangerous. Maybe even a little crazy."

"Strong, metal suit, freezing powers, crazy. Got it" Sunny repeated the key words as he began to load up on gadgets as well. "What have ya found out?"

Spike brought Sunny over to the table once they were done gathering what they needed. The papers were all spread out mapping the incidents and linking them to one common area. "More then half of these places were hit by the Maneiac when she built her weapon to make everypony's mane's go out of control like her own, so I'm assuming Frost Bite is doing something similar.

"But it looks like she grabbed some extra things. A few rare sapphires and gems, along with some other electronic equipment" Spike continued, pointing to all the areas. "No pony had seen her around and there were no large hoof prints leaving the scene of the crime. She needs that suit she made, there's no way she could function without it. And it's too big to move without being seen or leaving tracks."

"So how did she do it?" Sunny asked, picking up his hot chocolate now that it cooled.

"Look here, at all the sights, there's one thing connecting them all..." Spike pointed out something he circled in all the pictures.

Narrowing his eyes on the pictures, it took him a moment, but then it hit Sunny. "Th' sewers? She escaped through th' sewers?"

"If the sewers were big enough for Crocpony to fight the Dark Detective in, then they are big enough for Frost Bite to use for a quick and unseen escape" Spike noted. "And all the sewers lead up to one place..."

Looking at the papers again, Sunny's eyes focused on the one place at the heart of it all. "Th' old observatory?"

"Whatever she has planned, Im willing to bet it's there and I'm sure it isn't good" Spike clenched his fist. "We have to stop her!"

"Wow, not bad for ah sidekick, Spike" Sunny said without thinking as he finished the last of his hot chocolate.

"Excuse me?" Spike snapped, his anger now focused on the yellow unicorn.

"Well, ugh... I mean, ya are playing th' role of th' sidekick, right?" Sunny tried to recover, but it was too late.

"No, I get it. That's all you see me as. A 'sidekick' a 'lacky'" Spike's voice started to rise, heavily armed with knives and venom. "That's why you used me against Twilight, isn't it? 'Oh, Spike is just a dumb sidekick, he won't figure out that I'm using him!"

"Spike, I never meant to 'use' you" Sunny's country accent began to fade as he began to panic. "You just... kinda came in by accident..."

"OH! That makes it ok, doesn't it?!" Spike continued, his eyes narrowing on the yellow unicorn. "I wasn't part of your 'master plan' but you used me anyway! You know , Sunny, I used to think you were really cool! Even before the lies about being a Canterlot knight. But now I see you for who you really are!

"You're just a-a-a giant jerk!" Spike spat out. "It's no wonder you didn't have any 'friends' before! If you treated any of them half like you treated me, Twilight and the others! Even Big Mac and Thunderlane! Is that all friends are to you?! Spomepony to use and throw away?! Just pawns?!"

"Master Hum" Penny appeared beside Spike, trying to get his attention.

"No, Penny! He needs to hear this!" Spike snapped at the butler, quickly silencing him before turning back to Sunny. "You don't deserve friends! 'Real' friends don't use each other! 'Real' friends don't lie to each other, or keep secrets, or do anything 'you' have done!"

"Master Hum-" Penny tried once more to stop Spike.

But trying to stop Spike just made his voice rise. "YOU DON'T DESERVE FRIENDS! I HOPE EVERPONY FINDS OUT JUST 'WHO' YOU REALLY ARE AND ALL TURN THEIR BACKS ON YOU! YOU INSENSITIVE, HEARTLESS, MANIPULITIVE-!"

"That's enough, Spike" Penny said, putting a hoof on the little dragon's shoulder to actually stop him.

Taking his eyes off Sunny for a moment, Spike looked to Penny and realized that he had been shouting this whole time. Feeling short of breath and a little light headed, Spike looked over at the yellow stallion he was just yelling at. Sunny's usual glow seemed to have been bleached, his muzzle now expressionless, but his eyes looked slightly watery. Sunny said nothing as he simply grabbed the Dark Detective's mask and put it on, followed by the Dark Detective's hat. "I know I hurt you Spike... I never meant to hurt anypony. But I know now that what I did was wrong. I know making it right won't be easy, but I need to try. I apologized to you, telling you how sorry I was. That's the first step. Even if you didn't accept it, I had to try.

"I'll deal with Frost Bite, then we can go home" Sunny said as he grabbed the grappling hook and fired it up into the endless darkness above. The gadget clicked and began to pull Sunny into the highest and most well hidden point of the Dark Cave. Once out of sight, Spike sighed and walked over to the table, looking through the newspapers for the funnies sections. That should entertain him until all of this was over.

"Master Hum" Penny approached the young dragon. "May I say something?"

"Let me guess, you think I was too harsh on him, don't you?" Spike asked in a rather annoyed tone. "Trust me, I wasn't."

"Maybe you were, maybe you weren't" Penny started to say. "But you know he means well. He may have hurt you in the past, but everypony makes mistakes. You of all ponies should know that."

"It's one thing to make a mistake, it's something else to lie and manipulate others" Spike snapped as he finally found the desired newspaper comics.

"That is also true" the butler agreed. "But you can make a 'mistake' in succeeding at the wrong thing just as much as you can make a 'mistake' at failing to do something right."

"What's your point?" Spike snapped, still feeling slightly angers from the fight.

"My point, master Hum Drum, is anypony can make a mistake, and we all have to face them at one point or another" the butler started to say. "But it takes a big pony, even bigger then a masked hero, to be able to look past those mistakes and try and work for a better tomorrow."

Spike paused and took in everything Penny Worth had to say. It was true that Sunny had lied to him and used Spike to keep his secret. But there was more to the yellow unicorn then that. Thinking back, Spike remembered seeing Sunny help Rumble and Button Mash deal with Race and his siblings, or the time Sunny helped the Cutie Mark Crusaders with their science project when Twilight and the others were out of town, heck, Pinkie even told Spike how Sunny's hole ordeal with even coming to Ponyville was to originally find help with his memory loss, but he ended up putting his own needs aside to help the Apples with their large order! 'Maybe... maybe he isn't all bad.'

Without a second to lose, Spike got up, tightened his mask and cape, grabbed a spare grappling hook, then bolted after Su-, er , the Dark Detective. Penny simply watched and smiled, thinking to himself 'good luck, Spike.'

After arriving atop the old observatory, The Dark Detective paused and looked around, make sure that he wasn't about to fall into a trap. When the coast looked clear, the masked hero lowered a line and dropped down into the old observatory. He didn't know how this place eluded him or the police of Trotum. From the outside the entire place appeared to be glowing blue, the light pulsing as if it were alive. It didn't take the Dark Detective long to find the source of the blue light. At the center of the observatory was what must have been the main telescope, but now it hardly resembled one. The shaft and large end of the telescope appeared almost unaltered. However, the smaller end and all around the bottom of the large telescope had stuff added to it and looked much like the Maneiac's machine. There were differences between the two, like a metallic ring around the base of the telescope lined with the missing jewels, as well as several computers that were all hooked up to the telescope, all now with the same thing on their monitors. The image of '57%' were on every one of them. Then it changed to '58%', then to '59%' and continued to steadily raise.

"I have to shut this down and fast" the Dark Detective said to himself as he walked up to one of the computers. Although Buck Billionbits was a wiz with computers, Sunny had never seen one before.

"Welcome Dark Detective" a mare's voice echoed off the metal walls. "I've been expecting you!"

As Sunny turned around, something big, cold, and hard hit him, sending the masked hero flying across the room. The Dark Detective's back hit a pillar before a quick and sudden chill blasted him, like a harsh arctic wind blowing and covering him. When the chilling wind stopped, Sunny took a better look at himself and gasped. He had been plastered to the pillar in a thick coating of ice!

"You know it's not nice to keep a mare waiting" the voice called out again as a pair of red eyes glared at the masked hero from the shadows. Stepping forward, with every hoof step seemed to rattle the entire observatory, was a giant metal pony. The design of the machine that stood before the Dark Detective appeared to mimic that of what the telescope had. The giant metal pony appeared to also have several parts glowing bright blue, with tubes connecting it every leg, and two to each side of the pony's metal face. It's head had a dome like reflective helmet, where it's muzzle appeared to have a metal grate for teeth that allowed it's cold breath to escape. The over all one of the pony was three, maybe four times that of Big Mac!

"Surprised by what you see?" The pony asked. "Well take a good look, it's the last time you'll ever see this hideous monstrosity! Once the computers are done loading, I'll be free from this metal prison!"

"What are you planning, Frost Bite?" The Dark Detective asked as he tried to think of a way out of this situation.

"What am I planning? Well I'll tell you, Dark Detective" her voice echoed off her metallic suit. "But one last thing..."

The giant pony lifted it's large left hoof, the suit popping off it's hoof to reveal a powder white pony hoof about 8 times smaller then it. In a flash, another arctic blast shot out and hit somepony hiding in the darkness! The pony then slid out of the darkness, body completely frozen in a block of ice. When they emerged from the shadows, it was revealed to not even be a pony at all! It was Spike, er, Him Drum!

"What are you doing here?" The Dark Detective asked. "I thought you were-"

After a moment of trying to break free from the ice, the little dragon gave up and looked over at Sunny. "I know... I was super mad at you... but... I guess I had a change of heart. We can talk about it later."

"Awwww don't let me or the count down stop you" Frost Bite commented in a mocking tone. "I mean, it's only at 70%, you two have all the time in the world to talk! Even more once I'm done."

"What is your plan, you dastardly fiend?!" Hum Drum snapped.

"My plan is simple. And now that I have you two both securely locked away, I don't mind sharing that with you..." Frost Bite said as she took several steps away and looked out onto Trotum.

"I've turned the telescope into a weather converter! " The super powered mare began to explain. "I will walk the streets once more, without this metal suit, be able to sing and dance like any other pony, once all of Trotum is coated in ice! I will unleash a storm so powerful it will turn this dark city into a frozen paradise!"

"So... you're going to cause another winter?" Sunny asked, slightly confused.

"No! When I freeze over Trotum, it will be three times as cold as any winter before to ensure my stability in it! And this winter will last FOREVER!" The mare within the metal suit proclaimed as she began laughing out loud. Her voice even creepier thanks to it bouncing off the metal walls of her suit.

"But you can't do that!" Hum Drum said frantically.

"Yeah! What about all the other ponies in Trotum?! They won't be able to even leave their homes! They'll be stuck there or forced to leave!"

"I fail to see how that's 'my' problem" Frost Bite snapped as she turned away from the window and took several steps towards the Dark Detective. "Besides, when everypony is homeless and cold, they'll have you to thank for all of this. If not for you're blundering, I would still be able to walk around town, eat hot foods, and enjoy a day at the beach like anypony else!"

The Dark Detective appeared confused to both Spike and Frost Bite. Seeing this, the metal suited mare looked over to a monitor and pressed a button in her armor. The screen went from the count down at '81%' to a black and white video of a mare;

The mare had on a thick pair of glasses, her mane tied back in a bun, freckles, and bucked teeth. She had inform of her a head of lettuce and a few vials of light blue liquid. "Hello everypony. My name is Sunday Sprinkles, and what I have here is the final product of my flash freeze potion. Just one drop can freeze even the most temperature sensitive foods, like this lettuce here, and perfectly preserve it for many, many years! The potion itself consists of-"

Just as the mare was about to go into explaining what the potion was made out of, a grappling hook came smashing through a window, breaking the vials of the potion and splattering it all over Sunday! The mare on the screen began to writhe in pain as the potion began to absorb into her coat! The tape stops on an image of the mare falling to the floor.

"That was the recording from my accident! That stupid hook look familiar?!" Frost Bite growled.

Both Sunny and Spike gulped as they noticed it was one of the Dark Detective's own grappling hooks!

"It was because of 'you' that i became like this!" Frost Bite's suit then shook a little, the chest part opening allowing a regular sized mare to be seen. Her light blue mane flowed freely as the Snow White mare popped her head out of the suit. Her cobalt colored eyes looked out and found the hero and his side kick easily in the darkness.

"My eye sight improved to being 20/20" the mare explained in a soothing voice that had previously been masked by the metallic echo of the suit. "My teeth bent back into shape, and even my coat now could rival some models, but it's all a waste! Thanks to you I'm forced to hide in that hideous suit I made!

"When I was taken to the hospital, the doctors couldn't do a thing for me! They ran every test they could, but all they could do to stabilize me was put me in the hospital's walk in freezer! The walk in freezer! Do you know how I felt?!" The mare hissed then coughed, feeling the room temperature too much for her chilled body to withstand, she retreated back into her suit, closing it. After she took a few deep breaths in the suit, Frost Bite began again.

"After that, I put this suit together so I could work on finding a cure myself" Frost Bite continued to explain as she took deep breaths in her icy cold refrigerator suit. The helmet's red eyes once again focused on the Dark Detective. "But attempt after attempt failed. So I thought 'why not just live the rest of my life in this suit?' Big mistake. Everywhere I went ponies would point and stair, some even took photos with 'the metal mister of Trotum' as yet called me!

"I quickly grew sick of this suit, and realized if I was ever to go back to the way I used to live, I would have to change all of Trotum, not myself! So I came up with a plan" the scheming tone in Frost Bite's voice returned. "In a matter of moments, Trotum is scheduled a rain storm that will last until the morning. My device will blast the rain cloud and turn it into a snow cloud, then multiply it's strength ten full!

"When all of Trotum is as cold as I am, I can once again go to the grocery store without gawking eyes, walk down the street without smashing anything, and enjoy a nice day on the beach without anypony pointing, joking, and whispering about me! I'll be free! Free! FREE!" The mare in the metal suit began to laugh once again.

"You won't be free" The Dark Detective stated, his voice low and cold.

"What did you say to me?!" Frost Bite asked, stopping her rant.

"You won't be free" the masked hero repeated himself. "You'll just extend the walls of your prison."

"What do you mean?! I'll be able to go-" Frost Bite almost repeated herself, but was cut off.

"Go where? To a store that's close because ponies can go there to unlock it's doors? Down an empty street with no pony around? Or to an empty, and most likely frozen over beach? Where is the 'living' in all of that?"

"Shut up!" Frost Bit screamed as she arched back on her hind hooves, then stomped down as hard as she could with her front ones. "You have no right to talk to me like that! This is all you're fault!"

"I know it is..." the masked hero replied, even though Sunny himself had not done it, Frost Bite needed to hear this from 'the Dark Detective'. "And for that, I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry."

Frost Bite paused, her expression impossible to see within the confines of her metal suit.

Before the mad mare could say anything else, Sunny continued. "What I did was wrong, and how the ponies in town treated you was just as wrong, but doing this is even worse then that! Sunday, I know you're still in there, somewhere. Please, don't do this."

"Sunday Sprinkles! I know you!" Spike popped up. "You were the president of the Dark Detective fan club several years ago! We met with you and the other club members to attend a 'Q and A' and to pass out signatures!"

"Shut up! That was a long time ago!" The mare in the metal suit snapped. "I was young and foolish then! To look up to such a bumbling, glory hog such as the Dark Detective!"

"But you had a good heart" Sunny spoke up, drawing the mare's attention back to the masked hero. "And I know deep down, you still do. Saying I was sorry was just the first step, now I want to do whatever 'I' can to help you, if you'll give me a chance..."

Frost Bite thought for a moment, looked at her the monitors that all read '89%... 90%...', then back to the masked hero. "What makes you think 'you' could do anything to help me when nopony else could?"

"Hope" Sunny replied simply. "Hope. I never give up on my city, I never give up on my friends, and I never give up on those closest to me, no matter how hard they fall or how dark a situation looks. Because... because that's what a hero does. He doesn't fight evil for fun, he doesn't do it for the glory, he does it to set things right and to spark hope in the hearts of others. Others who had given up on those around them and themselves.

"What do you say, Sunday?" The Dark Detective asked, looking into the glowing red eyes of the suit's helmet, knowing Sunday was looking back at him through it. "It's your choice now. 'You' could be the hero, or you could just let Trotum freeze over. It's your call..."

Looking from the Dark Detective, to the computer screen that read '95%... 96%...', then back to her childhood hero, the suit's mask exhaled a gust of chilled breath. "The whole city will hate me, I've committed crimes, I'll go to prison."

"I'm good friends with the commissioner, I can talk to him for you" the masked hero stated. "Besides, all of this is technically 'my' fault. Please...let me help you."

The screens all read '97%... 98%.... 99%...' all before going completely blank. Frost Bite had pulled the main power cord, shutting it down and stippling her own plans to freeze over Trotum. She had hopped out of her suit last moment to do so, and now looked back at the Dark Detective with glossy cobolt colored eyes.

"Please... help me... I'm sorry... I'm really sorry..." she said in a shaky voice as tears trailed down her cheeks.

Back at the Dark Cave

"Hold still..." the Masked Matterhorn said as she looked over Sunday once more.

"Can I look yet?" The mare said with great enthusiasm, almost unable to hold in her excitement.

After going over the hit once more, the Masked Matterhorn smiled and nodded, pleased with her work. "Ok, you can open your eyes now."

As Sunday Sprinkles did, she looked into a set of three mirrors, each one showing a different side of herself. She moved and posed to see the different sides of her new body suit. It was white and pink in color, stretching all over her body, with goggles covering her eyes.

"Wow! I look really cute! I love it!" Sunday said as she started bouncing up and down.

"The suit is fairly sturdy, and shouldn't tear or rip easily" the Masked Matterhorn started to explain. "It's fully insulated with the fabric being able to keep in all your body's chilled atmosphere. So even if you, for some reason, found yourself in the middle of the desert, you'll still feel as chilled as you would in a freezer."

"Ugh, what about the touch?" Sunday asked, remembering how the doctors at the hospital had to wear special gloves just to touch her. Everything she touched with her hooves froze.

A quick way to demostrait the strength of the suit was for the Matterhorn to reach out and grab Sunday by the hoof. After holding her hoof for several moments, the masked Matterhorn smiled. "See? You can still slightly feel through the suit, but you won't freeze anything or anypony unless you focus your powers on it."

"That's great! Now all I need to do is-" Sunday started to cheer when a certain mask wearing hero reentered the room.

"Wait for me to get back with the good news?" Sunny asked as he and Spike still masquerading as the Dark Detective and Hum Drum emerged from the shadows. "I talked things over with the police commissioner as well as the Mayor. I explained to them the situation, and they granted me, 'the Dark Detective', fully responsible for the robberies as well as your accident."

"After all he's done for the city, and after we returned all the stolen things and offered to pay for the repairs, your slates are totally clean" Hum Drum added victoriously.

"Well... mostly clean" Sunny admitted. "The ponies of Trotum don't trust you yet. We need to show them that you're good. And you know, there's no way better to do that then by joining me and Hum Drum in cleaning up the city of crime."

There was a dead silence as Sunday processed all of that the Dark Detective was saying. "Wait.... you mean... I... join you two? In fighting crime? And saving the day?...."

"If you want to" Sunny said as he readjusted the Dark Detective's hat. "Or if you want, you could always join the Power Ponies in Maretropoolis."

"I know the others would love to have you join us" Th Masked Matter horn said with a smile.

"The choice, once again, is up to you" Sunny said with a smile.

A small smile began to grow on Sunday's face as she jumped at The Dark Detective, giving hug the biggest hug she could. When she released him, she looked around the room to give everypony her answer. "For the time being, I think I'll stay here and make things right. Besides, Trotum is my home. And I can't just leave it up to these two clowns."

"Please take care of them for us" the Masked Matterhorn told her. "And if you or the Detective need anything, we're just a phone call away. And Hum Drum, will we see you around some time again?"

"I'm sure once things smooth out here, I'll come back" the sidekick said.

"Then what do you say team? Shall we go patrol the city?" the Dark Detective asked as he pointed his grappling hook up it the dark ceiling of the Dark Cave. The gadget kicked back and pulled the Dark Detective into it's shadows.

"Let's do it!" Sunday said as she thrusted her hooves down, projecting herself into the sky with the last of her arctic wind. The snow that her blasts made dissipated in a moment after she left.

"Here we go again" Hum Drum exclaimed as he too shot off his grappling gun and soared through the air.

The Masked Matterhorn smiled and shook her head. "I guess all a pony really needs is a second chance. Good for you Sunday. Take care of those boys..."

Twilight's castle, Spike's room

The Dark Detective comic on the ground began to shake as it flipped open and spat out both Sunny and Spike in a flash of white light. As the two boys moved and flipped into their upright position, looking themselves offer as they straitened themselves out, the comic book disappeared.

"Well that was interesting, but Ah wouldn't really pay 900 bits to do it all again fer ah comic that would just disappear" Sunny said as he picked up his stetson had and brushed the dirt off of it.

"You payed 900 bits for that comic?" Spike asked, shocked that Sunny overplayed that much for it. "I only payed 3 bits for my last magic comic."

"Well... ta be honest, ah got it fer free" Sunny hated to tell Spike that Truth and sound cheep, but he needed to be honest. "Th' guy got busted free sellin' fake merchandise and ah got those comics fer free. Sorry."

Looking at the comics, Spike shrugged. "Eh, sounds like a fair deal to me, besides, I have another idea of what we can do with those bits."

"What would that be?" Sunny asked, sounding nervous.

"You ever been to a comic convention?" Spike asked as he quickly went rummaging through the papers on his desk, pulling out and showing Sunny a poster advertising the event. "There's one coming up in Caneterlot next month! Ponies dress in costumes, buy and trade stuff, there are games as contests, and lots of other stuff! I always wanted to go but Twilight thinks it's a waste of bits. Everything's really expensive."

"So... if we go, you'll forgive me?" Sunny asked in a slightly nervous and timid tone.

Scratching the back of his head, Spike tore his eyes from the poster of the comic convention to the yellow unicorn. "I already forgave you, Sunny. I just though..."

"That you'd like ta take ah friend to go and check it out who loved comic books as much as ya'll do?" Sunny said as he shot Spike a smile. "Well ah may not be as inta comics as much as ya, but that sure was ah heck of ah lot of fun dressin' up like ah super hero! Let's do it!"

"Awesome! Now we need to make some costumes" Spike said as he started pacing around, thingking of possible costume ideas.

"No offense ta th' Dark Detective, but ah think I'd like ta go as somepony else" Sunny said. "But ah don't really know that many comic book heroes."

"Yeah, I'm kinda tired of being Hum Drum. Besides, most ponies go as Hum Drum anyway" Spike said as he scratched the back of his head.

"Wanna go out fer ice cream and brainstorm ideas?" Sunny suggested.

"Heck yeah! That sounds awesome!" Spike said, throwing his fisted claws into the air. "Hey, ugh.... my legs are kinda tired, would you mind if I... got a ride from you?"

Without a second thought, Sunny wrapped his green magical aura around Spike and levitated him onto his back. After the baby dragon was secure on the yellow unicorn's back, Sunny trotted out of Spike's room and down the hall that lead to the front doors. Both of the boys were chanting 'ICE CREAM' the whole way.

Down the hall, Fluttershy and Twilight had just come back from a friendship mission, carrying with them books that Twilight obtained on that same mission. The purple alicorn was very please with herself for the haul and Fluttershy was more then willing to help her friend pull the large basket of books into her castle's library.

"Thank you for all your help, Fluttershy" Twilight said as she held the door open for her timid yellow friend. "It's rare that I come across books I don't yet have in my collection. And when I saw so many, I couldn't help myself."

"Oh, it's not a problem, Twilight" Fluttershy started to say. Then the light blue eyes of the Pegasus mare locked onto a fast approaching duo.

Sunny with Spike ridding on his back quickly dashed down the hallway, almost running right past Twilight and Fluttershy. The yellow unicorn was able to put on the breaks last minute, skidding to a stop.

"Where are you guys going in such a hury?" Twilight asked, a single brow raised at the two boys, surprised that they appeared to be getting along.

"Well, ugh, I talked about it with Sunny..." Spike started to say, but was having a hard time getting the words out.

"Spike told me 'bout ah comic convention goin' on in 'bout ah month. Would it be ok with you, Twilight, if we went?" Sunny finished asking for the little purple dragon, knowing that that was probably the hardest part Spike had to do.

Twilight looked at Sunny and Spike both, a little shocked at what she saw. Not maybe an hour ago the two weren't even on speaking terms, now Sunny was letting Spike ride in his back and they wanted to go to a convention together? The princess of friendship took a longer look at the two, studying their expressions and the looks in their eyes. Eventually a small smile grew on her face as she nodded. "Alright. Is anypony else going?"

"Maybe Thunderlane and Rumble would like to go" Sunny's mind first hopped to the only other stallion he knew who collected comics.

"I know Big Mac would like to go too, if we invite him that is" Spike added. "He wouldn't want to come out and ask us himself."

"Cool! We could all get together an' think up some costume ideas" Sunny beamed, growing more and more excited. Then something he remembered from the comic book store struck him, making him cringe. "Ugh... but we need ta stay away from wearing black armor. Apparently they put the 'Black Knight' in as ah new villain in th Power Pony comics."

"Really?!" Spike sounded surprised, but rebound from it as he and Sunny started casually walking away, still heading to meet the others for ice cream. "Why didn't you grab that one? That would have been cool! Hay! If I get one, would you sign it as the Black Knight?... maybe?"

Sunny sighed and shook his head as he carried Spike out of the castle. "Let's just get some ice cream first."

Watching the two boys go off to have some fun, Twilight released a held breath. "It's good to see those two finally getting along. And over comic books? Boys are weird."

"I knew they would work it out" Fluttershy said as she finished pulling the books into the library. "Spike is very sweet, and Sunny is a nice guy when you get to know him."

"I'm just..." Twilight started to say, but had too many words to end that sentence with.

"I trust Sunny" Fluttershy said as she started to take the books out of her cart. "He's really a nice guy at heart."

Sighing a little as she organized some books onto her shelf, Twilight couldn't help but lose herself in thought. 'He needs to show me more of this 'nice guy' Fluttershy seems to see before I'll even consider forgiving him and letting go of everything he did.'